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To solve the energy problem of the 21st century, the possibility of hydrogen as fuel source is being investigated, in particular in this paper the production of hydrogen through a catalysed ethanol steam reforming. A suitable support for nickel as active phase is looked for among the metal oxides, TiO2, ZrO2 and CeO2 are investigated. After the selection of the support, the catalyst is optimized by doping with CaO and/or gold nanoparticles. Next to the catalytic testing with an ethanol-water mixture, a series of characterization have been carried out: TPR, TPO, SEM, XRD, N2-physisorption, AAS and IC. Cerium oxide has been found to be the superior support in terms of the activity of nickel. Adding calcium oxide increased the hydrogen yield but could not cure the deactivation due to coke formation. Gold nanoparticles increased the activity of nickel and favoured the hydrogen yield significantly. The combination of the two dopants resulted in a catalyst with 70% hydrogen yield after ten hours.